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Updated: Nov 30, 2025

Indirect Immunofluorescence on Frozen Sections of Mouse Mammary Gland
Published on: December 1, 2015
Mammary development in the embryo and adult: new insights into the journey of morphogenesis and commitment
Christine J Watson1, Walid T Khaled2
1Department of Pathology, University of Cambridge, Tennis Court Road, Cambridge CB2 1QP, UK cjw53@cam.ac.uk.
Abstract:
The mammary gland is a unique tissue and the defining feature of the class Mammalia. It is a late-evolving epidermal appendage that has the primary function of providing nutrition for the young, although recent studies have highlighted additional benefits of milk including the provision of passive immunity and a microbiome and, in humans, the psychosocial benefits of breastfeeding. In this Review, we outline the various stages of mammary gland development in the mouse, with a particular focus on lineage specification and the new insights that have been gained by the application of recent technological advances in imaging in both real-time and three-dimensions, and in single cell RNA sequencing. These studies have revealed the complexity of subpopulations of cells that contribute to the mammary stem and progenitor cell hierarchy and we suggest a new terminology to distinguish these cells.
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